


Without limits

by randomdestielfangirl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Castiel's First Kiss, First Kiss, Human Dean Winchester, Insecure Dean Winchester, Interpreter Dean Winchester, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, Self-Esteem Issues, Sky Elf Castiel, Witch Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 02:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomdestielfangirl/pseuds/randomdestielfangirl
Summary: “Sky Elf.” Ellen says, scratching Kohi’s beak. “A couple were walking their baby Wyrm at the edge of Girons forest today when they saw him lying crumpled on the floor. His wings were injured badly, so they called us. Jo’s team has been healing him, but he can’t understand a word we say. He’s beginning to get a bit agitated.” “A Sky Elf?” Dean raises his eyebrows. “What on earth is he even doing here?”“Well you can help us find that out yourself boy.” Ellen snorts, before leading Dean toward the infirmary.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this was based on an anonymous prompt I got-
> 
> 'Either Dean or Cas is learning English as a second language and the other is tutoring them.'
> 
> And I _was_ going to make it short, but it somehow didn't work out. Part 2 of the story will be out within the week. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I know nothing about how interpreters actually work, so please suspend your belief if anything is a little too outrageous. Also this work has not been beta-ed.

Dean Winchester sighs at the sound of tapping at his window. It has been a long day and he really wants to be back at home and in his pajamas, nursing a mug of ale. The tapping increases in intensity as he gets up to open the window, stepping aside to let Kohi, Ellen’s crow familiar in. She perches on his desk and holds out the note tied to her leg with a disapproving squawk. Dean unties it and briefly presses his finger to the seal to unlock it.

The message is perfunctory, asking him to get to Ellen’s office right this second. Dean sighs again, pulls on his coat and shoves a leftover bacon cheese muffin entirely into his mouth before approaching Kohi.

“Ready to go.” his voice is muffled, but the familiar seems to understand him.

Kohi squawks shrilly and extends a wing to touch his fingers while Dean pours his magic into the link between them. In a flash, they reappear at the receiving area of the Department of Border Security. Kohi perches on his shoulder as Dean takes the steps two at a time toward Ellen’s office, still chewing.

Alexandria was one of the larger cities in Erethis, close to the borders of the country. Dean has been working for the City of Alexandria government as a translator and interpreter for over ten years, straight out of the Academy. Though he has his own office, it was to the Department of Border Security that he was called to most frequently, to aid travelers who’ve strayed into the borders of Erethis without proper documentation.   

Ellen looks up from a mountain load of paperwork when he reaches her office, her face alert.

“There you are.” she says, pushing her chair back to stand.

“What happened?” Dean asks her, as Kohi leaves his shoulder to perch on Ellen’s.

“Sky Elf.” Ellen says, scratching Kohi’s beak. “A couple were walking their baby Wyrm at the edge of Girons forest today when they saw him lying crumpled on the floor. His wings were injured badly, so they called us. Jo’s team has been healing him, but he can’t understand a word we say. He’s beginning to get a bit agitated.”

“A Sky Elf?” Dean raises his eyebrows. “What on earth is he even doing here?”

“Well you can help us find that out yourself boy.” Ellen snorts, before leading Dean toward the infirmary.

Dean’s skill with languages tended to surprise people. Everyone assumed his brother Sam would be the one to go into translation, given his early promise with Gnommish and Ulbeyan, but Sam had preferred to join the Magical Creatures Welfare Office as a Creature Specialist. He lived far out by the Northern Mountains with his girlfriend and fellow Creature Specialist Jessica, studying Snow Slimes, possibly the dullest creatures in existence. The slime _did_ prove to be useful in treating dragonfire burns, so Dean buried his resentment at Sam’s working so far away from home most days without fuss.

The boys had grown up in Whitefish, one of the many villages surrounding Alexandria. It was an important stop on the road to the city, so a lot of travelers tended to stop by. Dean had spent most of his time as a child working in the village tavern, and had picked up several dialects of Elvish, some rudimentary Kad’k and impressive amounts of Eotnosa, the language of Hobgoblins, by the tender age of twelve. Bobby Singer, the tavern owner, had pushed and pushed him to apply to the Academy afterward but Dean kept putting it off till his father had died suddenly when Dean was sixteen, leaving him suddenly free to go and get himself an education.

In all his years of experience working as an Interpreter though, Dean had never come across a Sky Elf. They lived in floating cities far above Erethis and rarely interacted with other races.

First time for everything though.

+

The Sky Elf standing in a corner of the infirmary looks more human than Elven. His dark hair is wild and messy like someone had run their fingers through it all night and there’s stubble on his square jaw. Dean’s never yet seen an Elf with so much as a hair out of place, even in intense combat, so it comes as a bit of a shock. The only indications of his non-human status are those massive black wings folded behind his back, the very tips of the feathers sweeping the ground, and his very blue, very intense eyes. One of the wings is bandaged heavily, Jo carefully finishing wrapping up the other. The Elf looks up in alarm when they approach, his face distressed.

Dean steps carefully toward him, his hands lifted, palm up. He stands at the door until the Elf nods at him, relaxing minutely. Ellen beckons to Jo, and the two of them slip past, shutting the door gently behind them. Dean sits down gingerly by the chair, keeping a respectable distance between them and smiles. The Elf doesn’t respond for a long time, watching Dean intensely with those too-blue, otherworldly eyes, but Dean persists. His eyes are almost beginning to water from the excessive eye-contact when the Elf nods at him again, the corners of his mouth turning up just a little.

Dean talks. He talks in all the dialects of Elvish he knows and when none of those make an impact, he moves on to other languages. Through it all, the Elf simply stares at him and smiles, shaking his head ruefully when Dean asks him questions. Dean signs asking if he _can_ talk and the Elf nods, replying shyly in a language that sounds both intensely familiar and alien at once. His voice is deep and hoarse, nothing like the silvery sweet voices of the Land Elves.  

And then it strikes Dean.

Sky Elves were supposed to have originated from the same Ancestral race of Elves the rest of the Land Elves came from, so their complete disconnect from everyone afterward might have preserved some of the original dialect.

“Can you understand?” Dean begins hesitantly in Oulari, tripping over the words. He had only ever _read_ the language, so he’s sure he’s making lots of pronunciation mistakes.

The Elf’s eyes light up in delight and he leaps forward to kneel at Dean’s feet, grabbing Dean’s hands between his own. His wings bend awkwardly, but the uninjured portions ripple behind him like the midnight sky. Dean fights the impulse to touch them, to sooth at the hurts, to plunge his fingers into the shining mass of feathers. The Elf begins to rattle something very fast, his eyes shining, and Dean has to tap at his hands to get his attention.

“Slower. I not know enough.” Dean says.  

The Elf nods a bit sheepishly, squeezing Dean’s palms.

“All right. What is your name?” Dean asks him, praying he got it right.

“Castiel.”

“Castiel?”

Castiel nods at him, smiling.

“Good. Excellent. What happened to you?” At Castiel’s look of blankness, Dean tries again. “How you— uh— You fall down?”

“I am injured.” Cas replies.

“Yes. Who? Did someone hurt you?” Dean mimes someone attacking Cas with a sword.

Cas slumps down further, his head almost in Dean’s lap.

“Pushed.”

“Pushed?” Dean doesn’t think he’s got the meaning of the word right, but he can sense that the answer is close.

“I.” Cas begins again, lapsing into some unintelligible muttering again. “I— pushed. My kin.”

Dean gnaws his lip, trying to remember the word he wants now.

“Exiled?” he asks Cas, and the Elf’s head snaps up, his blue eyes sorrowful.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Here. Not.” Cas gestures helplessly around him, trying to choose words Dean would understand. “Not to come here. Kin angry. So pushed.”

“Stay here. We keep you safe.” Dean offers. Cas looks at him in relieved surprise.

“Thank you.” the Elf breathes and Dean smiles at him reassuringly.

“Come. We uh— We—” Dean doesn’t know how to say that they’ll set Castiel up with a refugee status, guaranteeing a place to sleep and food to eat. But his expression must have conveyed some part of it, because Cas takes his hand, his eyes shining with undisguised adoration.

+

Ellen pulls some strings and Castiel is awarded a temporary refugee status. He is sent to live in one of the dormitories with the other refugees, all waiting for a permanent citizen status. Dean sees him almost everyday, one of his duties with new refugees being helping them adapt to Erethis. Castiel is a fast learner, learning human languages much faster than Dean can pick up any more Oulari, leaving him both jealous and impressed. The Sky Elf even manages to get a job in the Emergency services after his wings heal, his speed and dexterity in flight making him a fantastic rescue officer.  

Dean continues visiting him over the weeks ostensibly to tutor him, though Castiel doesn’t require it. Dean takes him out to his favorite haunts in the city and talks endlessly, Castiel content to listen most of the time. The Elf is endlessly curious about his new country and its customs and an entire childhood spent rattling off about the sights and sounds of Erethis truly help Dean.

Castiel rarely talks about his own home, explaining that Sky Elves are forbidden to leave the floating cities. But he had long held a curiosity for the _lesser world_ , as his people called Erethis and had sneaked out for a glimpse one day, only to be caught leaving and exiled. The punishment had included ripping out his wings, but he had escaped before it was fulfilled entirely.

“Lesser World my ass,” Dean grumbles. “That’s positively barbaric. It’s not exile, it’s torture.”

Castiel kisses his cheek softly, making Dean’s face burn. The Elf tends be very... tactile. Dean wonders if it is a cultural difference thing, but then again, he certainly has never seen Castiel even touch anyone else. He doesn’t know whether to be ridiculously pleased or afraid of this distinction.

+

The months pass and Dean slowly finds himself really talking to Castiel, not about innocuous things like good food and books and the best ale in Alexandria, but the more important things. Castiel is the best listener he’s ever had, because Dean can talk about his mother dying young and his father slowly morphing into a pathetic, violent drunkard who routinely hit his oldest child. He can talk about there never being enough to eat or wear, depending on their neighbors for the odd meal or hand-me-down. He can talk about the mixture of pride and heartbreak he felt when Sam won a scholarship to boarding school in Alexandria at age eight. Sam had begged him to apply as well, but Dean had always held back, feeling a strange sense of obligation to their useless father. Yet it had not stopped him from resenting Sam, even hating him a little when John lashed out at him after Sam had left, on the rare nights he was home.

Castiel never judges him, never looks at him with that unbearable mixture of pity and disgust in his eyes. He never attempts to console Dean or tell him it is alright or any of the usual platitudes. Castiel listens and accepts, never even offering advice unless asked. And Dean never asks. 

It's on a random summer evening when something Dean says makes Castiel laugh out loud for the first time, his dark wings shivering in mirth. Dean finds himself staring at him, an odd sensation in his chest. He gives in to the feeling for a moment, indulging in the warmth it creates before mentally kicking himself. Falling for the Elf was _not_ a part of his job description.

  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Sorry for any mistakes, I edited it with a four year old hanging on my arm so I'm sure I missed a few.

It’s not like inter-species romances were taboo on Erethis. But romantic relationships between citizens and refugees were strictly forbidden, given the chances of abuse. Dean doesn’t particularly want to get fired. And then there was the fact that he doesn’t know what exactly Cas feels for him. They’re good friends, best friends even. Cas is always hugely pleased to see him and ridiculously affectionate, but the hugs and kisses are almost platonic and only Dean emerges from them red-faced and semi turned on.

He tries avoiding Cas. He tries to go out and score with other people, but no one even attracts him anymore. Halfway through the first drink Dean starts thinking about blue eyes and capable hands and those magnificent wings and bolts back home with a terrible excuse like an idiot. He spends the rest of the night trying and failing not to jerk off to what little he’s seen of Cas’s body. The orgasms are always unsatisfying, the high always cloaked with a sense of extreme shame at his inability to not creep on his best friend.

He gets more and more irritable and snappy at work, unable to concentrate. Luckily he doesn’t need to interact with other people very often, buried in the translation project of an old alchemical book. However, his interpretation work is a whole different story and after a few disastrous mistakes Ellen promptly kicks him out of her office, ordering him to take a few days off if he’s going to be useless.

Cas eventually does lose patience with Dean’s wishy-washy excuses to avoid him and simply barges in through Dean’s window one week into his enforced time off. Dean’s attempting to drown his sorrows in expired chocolate and cold pizza, he’s unshaven and dressed in clothes from three days before. Cas takes one look at him and whatever he’s about to say is replaced quickly by a look of soft affection.    

“Oh Dean...” Cas sweeps him into his embrace, his wings wrapping themselves tightly around Dean. They tumble into the couch together, Dean almost in Cas’s lap. “What’s wrong?”

Dean swallows and buries himself into Cas. He’s terrified he’s going to start crying.

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

Cas says nothing to contradict him and gently tightens his hold before talking about his day at work. His citizenship papers are almost through by now and he’s hoping he can get an apartment as soon as he gets them.

“I do like the dormitory,” he says. “But Benny snores.”

Dean snorts into Cas’s chest, his fingers stroking through Cas’s dark wings. Cas makes a pleased purring sound at the touch, his head falling back.

“We should get an apartment together.” he murmurs, and Dean nearly breaks Cas’s jaw as he snaps his head back up to stare at Cas.

“What was that for?” Cas grumbles, rubbing at his jaw.

“Sorry.” Dean stammers out. A beat passes before he asks Cas, “Did you mean that?”

“Of course I did.” Cas says, still sounding mildly annoyed. “With my earnings, I cannot afford an apartment by myself. And I’ve heard you complain about yours many times. It is advantageous to get an apartment together. You’re best friend and I would like to live with you.”

Dean slumps back into Cas and rests his head against his chest. Of course. They were best friends.

\+       

They do end up getting an apartment together a month later, Cas getting his permanent citizenship status early due to his ‘contributing to society as an Emergency Officer’. Dean both loves and hates living with Cas. There’s the inconvenient fact that his ridiculous crush has only grown, watching Cas stumble in for breakfast sleepily in the mornings, his wings bent out of shape. He loves watching Cas reach out for things with his wings when he’s feeling especially lazy. He loves Cas’s silver-blue sleeping robe that smells of camphor. He even loves shopping with Cas, the two of them spending a memorable afternoon at Alexandria’s famous Queen Street, buying a whole load of mismatched second hand furniture. Cas attempts to spend nearly all his money buying a cuckoo clock that also showed the weather, pouting when Dean offers to charm an existing clock for free.

A month passes before things change again. Sam writes, telling him that his research is finished and that he and Jess are coming home. Dean is thrilled beyond words at having his brother in the same city again. Jo insists on throwing Sam and Jess a welcome home party at her house and Dean grudgingly agrees because Dean and Cas’s is a little too small even for a party of three.   

They arrive and it takes all of two minutes before his brother and Cas are the bestest of friends to ever friend, disappearing somewhere to chat merrily about Snow Slimes. Cas seems fascinated by them and Sam has never had a more captive audience. Jessica is ensconced with Jo, giggling about something. Dean chats with them for a while, thanking his stars that Jess at least doesn’t bring her work home with her. He’s beginning to enjoy himself when he spies Cas and Sam in the corner of his eye and almost chokes on his drink.

They’re standing close together and Sam is looking Cas with huge, starry eyes and Cas is smiling gently up at him, his hand on Sam’s giant arm.   

Dean retreats behind a pile of food and hides out there for the rest of the party, trying to talk himself out of his irrational jealousy. There’s no chance that Sam would ever cheat, and with his girlfriend right there, but he can’t stop the feeling of inadequacy that sweeps across him. Sam is smart and probably a lot more fun to be with than Dean. Most of Dean’s friends were Sam’s friends first. Dean wouldn’t even _have_ a social life in Alexandria without Sam introducing him to people.

But Cas was the only friend who was _Dean’s_.

+

He’s eating his weight in cured cinnamon kebabs when two arms wrap themselves around his middle and a low voice breathes in his ear.

“What are you doing here by yourself?”

Dean jumps at the touch and ends up choking, his eyes watering. Cas thumps at his back in alarm and Dean spits out the offending kebab, falling straight back into Cas’s arms. They don’t attract the attention of the other guests though, most of them too drunk off their ass.

“Are you all right?” Cas asks him, peering into Dean’s face, concern in his blue eyes. His arm is still looped around Dean’s waist and the other one rubs at his back soothingly.

“I’m fine.” Dean breathes, leaning into Cas’s touch.

They stand in silence, watching a shrieking Sam chase Jo across the room while Jess sits giggling in an armchair.

“Your brother is a remarkable young man.”

Dean stiffens and attempts to move away, but Cas’s arms are bands of steel, holding him in place.

“You two seemed to really hit it off.”

“We did not hit anything, it or otherwise.”

“No, Cas.” Dean sighs, “I just meant that you both seemed to become good friends. That’s great. It’s good. Me and Jess saw you guys talk, seemed pretty intense. He didn’t bore you did he? Sam never stops talking about those damned slimes.”

“We talked about you.”

Dean freezes in Cas’s embrace.

“Well.” Dean coughs, “Then it definitely _must_ have been boring.”

“I think I understand you a little more now, Dean Winchester. How kind and noble and brave you are. I thought I knew, but as it turns out I was only half-conscious of the brightness of your soul. Your brother’s conversation was most illuminating.”

Dean’s face is on fucking fire now. He fidgets a little, trying to squirm out of Cas’s hold.

“Dean?”

Cas’s voice is closer than ever and Dean has to suppress a shiver when he lifts his eyes to meet Cas’s.

“Tell me you feel it too.” Cas whispers, his arms loosening. “Tell me I’ve been reading what is between us right.”

Dean thinks of bolting, of not taking the chance with Cas and running the risk of their relationship crashing and burning. He’d keep Cas as a friend, his best friend. It would be the safest thing to do. It would the most logical thing to do.

So obviously he leans in and kisses Cas.

+

Much later, back in their tiny apartment, they lie naked and sated in bed together with Cas’s beautiful wings wrapped protectively around Dean. Dean feels like he’s floating up in space, the midnight blue-black of Cas’s feathers making him feel like he’s inside a cloud.

“I love you.” Dean whispers, half-hoping Cas didn’t hear him.

“Beloved.” Cas says gently, his fingers stroking through Dean’s hair. “Beloved, your voice was the first thing in this world that made sense to me. I was drowning, falling, my wings torn. I was lost. You found me, you understood me, _you_ made me feel alive.”

“Cas.” Dean says, lifting his head to look at the Elf.

“I have never loved any creature in this world more than I love you, Dean Winchester.”

“Cas.” Dean says, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He’s not worth this adulation.

“Hush.” Cas says, “I will say it till you believe me. One day you _may_ love yourself as much as I love you and that day, Dean.” He kisses away Dean’s tears. “That day is the only day I will truly deserve your love.”

Dean whimpers and presses his face into Cas’s neck, tears flowing in earnest now. Cas holds him close while Dean sobs, rocking him gently, kissing soothing words into Dean’s skin.

“Sleep my love,” he says, “I will watch over you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Want to send me a prompt? Go [ahead!](http://randomdestielfangirl.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
